History of the Tour de France: Great Moments, Greater Winners

Lance Armstrong has provided plenty of great moments at the Tour de France. (Wikimedia Images)"]

For many Americans, the Tour de France is just some bike race that shows up on the sports scene once a year in July. Odds are you have heard of Lance Armstrong, but there have been many other great moments and great winners through the years.

The race is broken down into day-long segments, called stages. Individual times to finish each stage are totaled up to determine the overall winner at the end of the race.

It is possible to win without winning a stage, as Greg LeMond did in 1990.

The race has finished since 1975 with laps of the Champs-í‰lysées. This stage rarely challenges the leader because it is flat and the leader usually has too much time in hand to be denied.

But in 1987, Pedro Delgado broke away on the Champs to challenge the 40-second lead held by Stephen Roche. He and Roche finished in the peloton and Roche won the Tour.

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